WHAT YOU NEED
• Ordinary playing cards, preferably two or three decks.
• Three or more players, at least one of whom must control antagonists.
• Several chips, coins, or similar tokens with discernable differences between their two sides.

THE CONCEPT
FANTASTICAL ADVENTURE is intended as a light ‘n fast roleplaying game with a fictional style that I like to think of as “fantastical adventure” (hence the title). The setting is the planet Earth during a highly fictionalized and anachronistic late Victorian era, drawing heavily from Victorian fantastic fiction and penny dreadfuls as well as their descendents, pulp adventure and pulp sci-fi (both comics and novels). Plus a bit of those silent films with artsy, Expressionist touches for a good measure.
Forbidden cities, zeppelins, pterodactyls, cavalry sabers, motorcars, Vikings preserved in ice, Gatling guns, mummies, Mayan centipede gods, abominable snowmen, giant condors, volcano cults, submarines, voodoo queens, nitroglycerine, clockwork, privateers, Chinese sorcerors, conspiracies against the Crown, ironclads, nosferatu, mad science, jazz music, inadvisable magic, rockets to the moon, gunslingers, mole people, Gypsies, army ants, opera capes, steam gurneys, domino masks; the “fantastical adventure” style is all of these things, and things in a similar spirit, tossed into a blender for no good reason other than that they make me go, “Gee, golly, wow.” If they make you go “Gee, golly, wow” too, then FANTASTICAL ADVENTURE is the game for you. And we should hang out sometime.

CHARACTER COMPONENT no. 1: FACETS
Every character gets four Facets. Each Facet represents a side or aspect of a character’s background and abilities. Individual Facets can be defined as one of the following sorts of things:

• A current or former career or profession, such as Sailor, Ranch Hand, Pilot, Bookseller, Shootist, Spelunker, Gardener, Diplomat, Veteran.
• An area of expert knowledge, such as Occult Philosophy, Medicine, Rocket Science, Tactics, Ancient Languages, Archaeology, Politics.
• A creed or code of behavior and/or ideals, such as Chivalry, Bushido, Vow of Poverty, Nationalist, Opportunist, Southern Belle.
• An area of specialist training, discipline, and/or conditioning, such as Fencing, Horseback Riding, Kung Fu, Alchemy, Military Drills, Yoga, Wilderness Survival.
• A fantastical or otherwise distinguishing quality, such as Traveled the Globe, Exceptionally Beautiful, Raised by Wolves, Heir to a Fortune, Strongest Man in the World, Time Traveler, Sold My Soul to the Devil.

It is fine if your Facets are closely related and even overlap some. It is also fine if they are very diverse and have little to do with each other; this would merely indicate a character who has led a very rich and varied life.

On your character sheet, you should flesh out your Facets by writing at least a sentence or two, in-character, about each Facet and the character’s experience relevant to the Facet. It’s a good idea to write these in such a way that they a.) add depth to the character and b.) imply relationships, prized possessions, ambitions, and other tasty hooks that can be incorporated in the story.

Examples:
• Sailor: “I served on the crew of a merchant ship in my youth. The captain, a haggard Scotsman named MacDuffee, was a hard man, but a fair one, and he was like the father I never had.”
• Archaeology: “I discovered the golden tomb of Khamenhotep, and I kept his Golden Amulet of Bast, the cat goddess, as a souvenir.”
• Kung Fu: “I was fortunate enough to train with the warrior monks of Shao-Lin. My education there was bloody and hard, but I hope that someday I may return, for there is so much more yet to be learned.”

Next, associate each Facet with a suit of cards (Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, Spades). You can assign any suit to any of the Facets, as long as you do not repeat any. Draw the sign of the suit next to the associated Facet on your character sheet for easy reference.

Next, decide which of your Facets is your Strong Suit, and put a plus mark (+) by it on your character sheet. Any actions that you perform in your Strong Suit will trump other actions, unless said actions are related to your opponent’s own Strong Suit.
You must also pick a Weak Suit, and put a minus mark (-) by it on your character sheet. Your Weak Suit is automatically trumped by any action that is not part of a Weak Suit itself. However, if two characters act in tandem using their Weak Suits for a common goal, their actions are treated as a single Strong Suit action.

The Strong and Weak suit classifications are the only measure of “how good” a character is at tasks related to a Facet. You can assume that any and all skills, knowledge, abilities, contacts, resources, and gear associated with a given Facet are available to the character. For instance, if Isadora Heller has a “Horseback Riding” Facet, you can assume that she has a horse (maybe multiple horses) and all necessary accoutrements, she rides like a champion, she has servants to take care of her horse(s), she has various contacts in the sphere of horseback riding (groomers, trainers, breeders, other riders, etc.), and she knows anything she might need to know about horses. For another example, if Duke du Valle has a “Balloonist” Facet, you can assume that he owns a balloon or blimp of some sort (if not multiple balloons), he has a crew for his balloon (if it is large and complex enough to require a crew), he knows how to pilot a balloon, he understands the physics of ballooning, he knows the history of ballooning, he has contacts who are involved in ballooning, and he knows how to construct a balloon.

The point here is that it is not necessary to write down all of these things for them to be true. You are encouraged to incorporate explicit descriptions of such things when fleshing out the Facets, because it will make the character easier to understand and more interesting, but you are not limited to what you thought of to write down at the time. If a use of a Facet occurs to you in the middle of play, that is perfectly fine; you’re allowed to use it. However, you can choose to limit what assets associated with a Facet are actually available to your character.

CHARACTER COMPONENT no. 2: AMBITIONS
Ambitions are goals, hopes, and desires that provide the impetus for a character’s actions. They are split into two categories: long term Ambitions, which should be fairly general in scope, and short term Ambitions, which should be specific in scope. Short term Ambitions should be individual goals that lead to accomplishment of the long term Ambitions.

Examples of long term Ambitions:
• “To amass great wealth”
• “To unravel the mystery of my parents’ enigmatic death”
• “To atone for my past crimes”
• “To go down in history as a great explorer”
• “To win the heart of my true love, Genevieve”
• “To prove my genius to those halfwits at the Royal Academy of Science”

You may have only four long term Ambitions at a time, while you can have as many short term Ambitions as you like, as long as they are directly related to your long term Ambitions (for instance, short term Ambitions like, “To discover the lost treasure of Constantinople” or “To deliver my cargo of Chinese silks to San Francisco” would be related to the long term Ambition “To amass great wealth”).

Short Term ambitions can be taken up freely, as long as they related to one or more of your Long Term ambitions. Long Term ambitions may also be taken up freely, until you have four. Once you have four Long Term ambitions, you can only change or abandon one if you are presented an opportunity to pursue it and decline.

Pursuing Ambitions is one of the ways you replenish your Hand (see below): every time you take on a Short Term ambition, you draw a card. At the beginning of every scene in which you are working toward accomplishing that ambition, draw a card. If you manage to accomplish it, you may draw five cards; these particular draws can be distributed between present characters who assisted in the process.

CHARACTER COMPONENT no. 3: BONDS
Bonds are special relationships that have great importance to the character. Whether the relationship is positive or negative is irrelevant; all that matters is that the relationship is important and mutual. A lifelong friend is a great candidate for a Bond, as is an arch-nemesis, but an unrequited love is not, nor is sworn revenge on someone who doesn’t also want to kill you (these latter two, however, are excellent candidates for Ambitions).

You can only have four Bonds at any given time. However, you can break an existing Bond to make room for a new one. Breaking a Bond requires actions that appropriately run counter to the Bond in question in such a way that both of the involved characters’ feelings and opinions of each other change vastly, or actions that render the Bond meaningless.

Bonds should be noted on the character sheet. You should note both the name of the character you are bonded with, as well as the nature of the bond (“Blood Brothers,” “United in Wedlock,” “Sinister Co-Conspirators,” “Unholy Alliance,” etc.)
Note that while you can have only four Bonds at any given time, you can have any number of relationships with various characters; Bonds merely represent especially important relationships. Mechanically, the difference is that Bonds give you benefits, in the form of replenishing your Hand (see below) when acting in accordance with a Bond. For instance, attending a masked ball with Lady Celia, with whom you have the Bond “Secret Lovers,” would be acting in accordance with the Bond and would permit you to draw a card; trekking across the frozen tundra in pursuit of Professor MacNightmare, with whom you have the Bond “Arch Nemeses,” would also be acting in accordance with the Bond and would permit you to draw a card.

Another benefit provided by Bonds is Lending a Hand, which enables two characters who are linked by a Bond to give each other cards from their Hands. If the two characters are not in the same locale at the time, this can be seen as one character drawing motivation from a thought or memory of the other character.

Bonds do not end at “death” (see below), unless the surviving character Moves On (at player discretion).

CHARACTER ROLES
There are three roles for characters to play: protagonists, antagonists, and supporting cast. All three types are described using Facets, Ambitions, and Bonds as described above.

Protagonists are the major characters of the story; that is, the story is about the protagonists. Every game must have at least one protagonist.

Antagonists are major characters who stand against the protagonists in some way. The method of antagonism can vary, as can the motivation for antagonism—all that matters is that an antagonist acts in some way to prevent the protagonist(s) from achieving their goals, or at least makes achieving those goals more difficult.

Supporting Cast are minor characters who act in support of a protagonist or antagonist. Groups of supporting cast members such as sailing crews, street gangs, henchmen, and such can be treated as a single character.

An example of Facets for a sailing crew Supporting Cast:
• Sailors: “We’ve lived on board th’ Prosperous Wind as long as most of us can remember, an’ we plan to die on board‘t as well.”
• Loyalty: “Cap’n Bear would die for us, an’ we’re always ready t’return th’ favor.”
• The Good Ship Prosperous Wind: “The Prosperous Wind is as swift, sturdy, an’ seaworthy a vessel as you’re likely to see this side of the Pacific. She’ll outrun any problem she wants to, an’ weather them as she don’t.”
• Battle-Hardened: “’Tween pirates an’ the Royal Navy, we’ve been through more ‘n our fair share of scraps, but we always done well to come out on top.”

The main reason I call for the distinction between Protagonists and Antagonists (and Supporting Cast who support one of the two) is this: a single player should never control both a protagonist and a character antagonizing that protagonist; otherwise, the conflict between them is not likely to be very interesting.

Note that it is entirely feasible for a character’s role to alter during the course of a story for dramatic purposes. If two characters you control end up in conflict, you should give control of one of them to a different player. For small groups, it is probably best that one player handle all or most of the antagonists.

Also note that a character’s role is not necessarily indicative of his level of power; the protagonist might just be an ordinary person, with a supporting cast of exceptional or extraordinary people.

RESOURCE no. 1: THE CARDS
Every character gets its own Hand upon entering the game, dealt in ordinary fashion from a shuffled deck. If you control multiple characters (you probably will), be sure to keep their respective Hands separate. The number of cards depends on the character’s overall level of power. The divisions of power:
• Ordinary Persons (3 cards): people without notable abilities or importance; townsfolk, merchants, servants
• Persons of Import (5 cards): people who are important and influential, but not necessarily extraordinary in their abilities; dignitaries, crews of famous vessels, politicians
• Extraordinary Persons (7 cards): persons of exceptional ability and reputation; the sorts of people they write books about, whether heroes or villains
• Fantastical Persons (10 cards): persons of legendary ability and reputation, so much so that no one is sure what parts of the rumors are true and which are fantasy

The size of a character’s hand might grow to exceed its initial size; this is fine.

Since you’re likely to have a great deal of characters involved in a game, and new characters might become involved at any time, it’s probably best if you use two or three decks combined, as in Canasta.

You play cards to accomplish various things in-game. After being played, a card is considered spent and is placed into the discard pile. See below for the various methods of replenishing a Hand.

The Pips (deuces through tens) are used for Conflicts and Identify Checks (see below). They represent basic effectiveness values for actions related to the Facet indicated by their suit. Face Cards (jacks, queens, kings, aces) have special functions, but can also be substituted for Pips, in which case their value is 10.

Jacks can be played to issue Challenges when it is not your turn, or to otherwise pre-empt an opponent’s Challenge (before the opponent’s card is revealed; also, the opponent reclaims their Challenge card) with a Challenge of your own. You must narrate the manner in which your character interrupts the other, and it should relate to the Facet indicated by the Jack’s suit. You must still play a separate Challenge card face-down as in a normal Challenge. After your Challenge is resolved, the interrupted character resumes their turn.

Queens can be played to prevent another character from attaining their goal after they win a Conflict. If you play a Queen in such a situation, your target’s goal is canceled and you take a Hit instead. You must narrate the manner in which your character blocks the goal and suffers a Hit, and it should be connected to the Facet indicated by the Queen’s suit. Note that everything else occurring in the Conflict still happens; it is just the final goal that is blocked.

Kings can be played when issuing a Challenge to prevent your opponent from having Support. You must narrate the manner in which your character prevents your opponent’s allies from Supporting, and it should relate to the Facet indicated by the King’s suit. King Challenges still require a separate Challenge card played face-down as normal.

Aces can be played when issuing a Challenge to render it unanswerable, such that it cannot be stopped unless the Answering opponent also plays an Ace (in addition to a face-down Answer card). If no opposing Ace is played, you must narrate how your character was able to produce the effect in a manner that prevented opposition of any kind, and it should related to the Facet indicated by the Ace’s suit. Ace Challenges still require a separate Challenge card played face-down as normal.

Jokers can be used in place of Pips. Jokers can only be trumped by Deuces (twos), and they are Deadlocked against other Jokers. Actions performed using Jokers are not required to use Facets at all. You can also discard a Joker from your Hand at any time and draw three cards in exchange.

RESOURCE no. 2: APPLAUSE AND AUTHOR TOKENS
At the beginning of the game, all players (not characters) receive ten Applause tokens. I suggest using coins turned tails-up to represent these. At any time you find a fellow player’s narration to be particularly clever or thrilling, you can give her one of your Applause tokens. In doing so, the Applause token becomes an Author token (I suggest flipping the coin over to heads-up to reflect this). Author tokens are always associated with a player, not a character, and allow the use of special Author Powers. When all Applause tokens have been given away, distribute another ten to all players. Spent Author tokens are removed from the game.

The Author Powers:
• Flashback (cost 1): at any time, narrate (in-character) a flashback sequence to retroactively establish a history between your character and a newly introduced character, locale, or object. You may even take on Bonds or Ambitions (short or long term) relevant to the Flashback (assuming that you have room for a Bond or long term Ambition), and even set yourself up with Advantage. Note that this effect can be accomplished for free during game preparation and scene framing; however, Flashbacks, like all Author powers, are not subject to Vetos.
• Foreshadowing (cost 1): at any time, narrate (in-character, in past tense) a short statement that establishes, as vaguely or specifically as you like, upcoming events. Any characters who will be inconvenienced due to the upcoming event may draw a card. Examples of foreshadowing: “We trudged onward through the desert, never anticipating the horror that awaited us over the next dune.” “Looking back, it seems foolish for me to have ever trusted that nefarious doctor.” “If only I had not miscalculated the intensity of the blast, my poor manservant Rupert would still be with us to this day.”
• Concrete Fact (cost 1): at any time, add a concrete, explicit fact to the scene, as long as it does not contradict any previously established facts. This is a good way to gain Advantage in conflicts, or to circumvent the Identify Check process. Note that this is done for free during scene framing; however, Author Powers are not subject to Veto.
• Draw (cost 1): indicate any one character; that character draws a card.
• Monologue of Miraculous Survival (cost 3): at any time, have one of your characters who “died” reappear and give a monologue describing how he miraculously survived. The character also gains +X Advantage against any antagonists who believed him to be dead for the rest of the scene, where X is the number of scenes for which the character was believed to be dead.
• Lucky Break (cost 5): at any time, narrate an automatic success, up to scene-scale in scope, for one of your characters and any allied characters. This can be as fantastical and miraculous as you like; all manner of deus ex machina is allowed and encouraged. This is good for clinching important victories, or miraculous escapes. Any characters who are inconvenienced by this may draw three cards.

CONFLICT
On your turn, if you wish your character to accomplish an important or considerable feat or effect (basically, anything beyond mere interaction), you do so by Issuing a Challenge. To Issue a Challenge, you declare what your character intends to accomplish (you are not required yet to declare how they intend to accomplish it) and place a card on the table face-down from the character’s Hand; this card is your Challenge Card.

If anyone wishes to prevent you from attaining that goal, they must Answer the Challenge. To do so, they declare their intent (but not their method) and place a card from their hand face-down on the table; this card is the Answer Card. At this point, it becomes a Conflict. Note that harsh or hostile surroundings can Answer a challenge (they can also issue Challenges in appropriate situations).

If any other characters want to Support either side, they announce their intentions to do so and each place a card from their hands face-down; each of these is either a Challenge Support Card or an Answer Support Card. Any opposing supporters must pair off. If there are an odd number of supporters on one side, then one of them will have to go unanswered.

Now you flip over all the cards and start resolving the conflict. Cards with higher face values trump cards with lower face values; face cards in this case have a value of 10. A Joker trumps everything but a Deuce (regardless of suit). A Strong Suit will automatically trump an opposing card, unless the opposing card is also in its user’s Strong Suit, in which case it goes to face value. A Weak Suit is automatically trumped by any card that is not itself from a Weak Suit, in which case it goes to face value. However, if one of the primary characters in the conflict (the Challenger or the Answerer) plays a Weak Suit card and one of his Supporters also plays a Weak Suit, their actions are considered to be in tandem (as a Challenge or an Answer) and treated as a Strong Suit action with a value equal to the highest of the two face values; if the Supporter was paired against an opposing Supporter in this case, he is no longer paired, and the opposing Supporter goes unanswered if there is no additional friendly Supporter to replace the initial one with. If the value of two cards are equal and of the same “strength” (as in Strong Suit/Weak Suit/normal), it goes to a Deadlock (see below).

Start with the Supporters, one pair at a time. The one whose card trumps the other is the “winner.” The player controlling the winner must narrate how their character overcame the other in a fashion related to the Facet indicated by the card’s suit. If violence is appropriate to the conflict, the winner may inflict a Hit (see below) on the loser. The loser may draw a card.

For each Challenge Supporter that was victorious or went unanswered, the Challenger gains an Advantage of +1. Likewise, for each Answer Supporter that was victorious or went unanswered, the Answerer gains an Advantage of +1.

Finally, compare the cards of the Challenger and Answerer. The trumped character may either Yield, in which case he forfeits his goal but may draw a number of cards equal to his Advantage plus 1 for yielding (these draws may also be distributed between his Supporters), or he Pushes, in which case is Advantage is reduced by 1 and he plays a second card from his hand (this new card need not be higher than the previous cards; it's basically a comeback or counter move). The other character may then Yield (forfeit and draw cards, as before) or Push back, which reduces his own Advantage by 1 but allows him to play a card from his own hand that defeats his opponent’s new card. This process is repeated until someone Yields or cannot play any more cards when called to, either due to running out of cards or running out of Advantage. The person left standing is the winner.

The winner must narrate how they overcame their opponent and attained their goal in a manner related to the Facet indicated by the suit of the last card he played. If violence is appropriate to the conflict, the winner may inflict a Hit on the loser. If the Challenger won and his initial goal was to Hit a character other than the Answerer, they may both be Hit.

Any unspent Advantage at the end of the conflict can still be used to draw cards, and the draws can be distributed between the character and his Supporters freely. Note that the loser always draws at least one card.

Once the conflict has been resolved and the effects of the goal applied, the Challenger’s Turn ends.

What If No One Answers My Challenge?
The goal is attained without a problem. You must narrate how your character attains the goal, but you are not limited to the Facet indicated by your Challenge Card, nor do you have to reveal that card. You also get your card back, and can continue with your turn.

More About Advantage
A point of Advantage should be awarded for any circumstance in the scene that would afford a Challenger or Answerer a certain edge in the conflict. For instance, in violent conflicts, standing on higher ground should afford you a point of Advantage, and having the sun in your eyes should afford your opponent a point of Advantage. Basically, any circumstance that stacks the odds in your favor should give you a point of Advantage. Use your imagination. If someone suggests that something should provide Advantage and you disagree, you can call for a Veto (see below).

Resolving Deadlocks
A Deadlock is basically a tie: when two cards are played against each other and neither is able to trump the other. There are three ways to resolve this; the two players involved must agree on one.
1. Both characters yield, forfeiting their goals.
2. Both characters accomplish their goals, if said goals are not mutually exclusive.
3. Decide which character wins by chance; flip a coin.

Suspended Challenges
Some actions require a Suspended Challenge: a Challenge that is set up now, but will not be Answered until later. Actions such as barricading a door or setting a trap would fall under this category. In these cases, you state the goal of your Challenge and place your Challenge card face-down, somewhere out of the way. It may be good to write down the nature of the Challenge and keep this note with the card. This card remains where it is until such a time as the Challenge is Answered, at which point the Challenge is resolved as normal. In the case of Suspended Challenges, you must describe them to some degree (although you don’t have to give every detail), because the future Answerers have to know what it is so they know how to Answer it.

Regarding “Table Talk”
Players whose characters are allied may converse during a conflict to cook up a plan. The purpose of the Weak Suits is not to introduce tactical disadvantages, but to encourage teamwork between players. Table talk is not only absolutely fine, but encouraged. In fact, it is encouraged throughout play.

HITS
When a character is Hit (suffers any sort of violence), one of the following things happens (the player must choose):
1. The character Goes Down and cannot act until his wounds are treated or he Shakes It Off.
2. The character Shakes It Off, which requires that he either discard a card or lose one of his Facets (player’s choice) until his wounds are treated.
3. The character is “killed.”

If a character loses all four Facets, that character is automatically “killed.” See below.

“DEATH”
Characters can be “killed” by losing all four Facets from being Hit, or if the player decides that a given Hit “killed” them. When a character is “killed,” the player controlling him must narrate the “death” sequence. It is probably best to narrate this in such a fashion that nobody ever actually sees the character die, but they believe, without a doubt, that the character is dead; this is because characters will often survive miraculously (see the Author Powers). So, disappearing at the bottom of the waterfall is a good “death,” as is being carried off by savage cannibals; but having your head cut off or being rent to pieces by alligators in plain sight is not a good death (unless you do not want the character to come back ever, or it was actually your twin who was killed, or whatever).

While “dead,” a character regains one card per scene until reaching a number of cards equal to the character’s initial hand.

DANGEROUS ENVIRONMENTS
Dangerous environments, such as impassable deserts, dangerous neighborhoods, and impenetrable jungles, sometimes act as antagonists. Such environments can still be described in terms of Facets. For instance, a desert might have Facets like “Unbearable Heat,” “Shifting Sands,” “Harsh Winds,” and “Desert Marauders” that could be used against the characters.
Such environments should be allowed to bring problems to bear on the characters (by Issuing Challenges) during the scene and should be allowed to have an influence in Conflicts. When this happens, the environment should be controlled by a player whose characters are not at risk due to the environment. Environments do not get a Hand; any time the environment needs a card, pull one from the top of the deck. Note that environments can have Advantage for the purpose of Pushing in conflict, but not for drawing cards.

NARRATION
Narration is passed between players in turn around the table. On your turn, you can narrate the actions of characters you control, and you can narrate for other characters if their players give you permission to do so. In cases of dialogue or other interaction, the player controlling the character you are interacting with supplies the narration for their character’s responses.

You can also detail aspects of the surroundings through your narration. However, if you wish to introduce an item, creature, person, or some manner of problem that creates conflict or presents a threat, you cannot describe the thing explicitly; you must do so vaguely, and the characters involved in the scene establish what exactly it is through Identify Checks (see below). So, you can say, “There’s a problem with the ship,” and narrate how this problem makes itself apparent, but you can’t specify the exact nature of the problem; that will be established through an Identify Check.

Also, if you want to effect a change on the game world that another character might want to oppose, you should do so with a Challenge. Basically, if it would disadvantage another character, or produce effects that another character would not want to occur, it should be done through a Challenge. Sometimes no one will Answer your Challenge, which is fine. Also, if a player voices the fact that they want their character to oppose an action, it should go to a Challenge.

Your turn ends if you pass it on to the next player or after resolving a Challenge you issued.

SCENE FRAMING
Scene framing is the process by which you create a new scene. This should involve all the players. If you like, you can do it by suggesting things in turn. You want to be thinking about the following things as you do this:
• How much time has passed between this scene and the previous scene? Hours, days, weeks, years? Or are they concurrent? Or does this scene take place chronologically before the previous scene?
• Where does the scene take place? What is it like? What time is it? What objects are around?
• Who is there? Why are they there? Is character X aware that character Y is there? Will character Z show up later in the scene?
• What is this scene going to accomplish? Is it to introduce a character or locale? Is it to highlight a given feature of a character? Is it to introduce, resolve, or raise the stakes of a conflict? Is it to set up information that will be important to later scenes? Is it to establish a relationship between character X and character Y?

VETO
If you do not like what someone else has narrated, or you do not like their suggestion during scene framing, you can call for a Veto. In a Veto, the players all vote for or against the narration or suggestion in question; if you like, you can do this by secret ballot. If the majority votes against the object of the Veto, it is retracted and the player who narrated or suggested it must replace it with something else. If the majority votes for the object of the Veto, the original narration or suggestion stands, and the player who called for the Veto must either discard a card or forfeit an Author token. If the votes tie, the narration or suggestion stands.

IDENTIFY CHECKS
When a fact is introduced that poses a problem or threat to a character, it must be done vaguely (if not part of scene framing or through Author Power). Its exact nature is determined by an Identify Check, which works like this:

The person who introduced the fact pulls a card from the top of the deck and lays it face down. Then, characters who are involved in the scene may attempt to identify it by playing a card from their Hand, face-up, and describing what it is, in-character. What they claim the thing is should be related to the Facet indicated by the card’s suit (for instance, if the Facet indicated was “Pirate,” you could identify a creature as “a giant squid” or “a talking parrot” or something else that a pirate would be able to identify). If another player wants to identify it as something else, they merely have their character play a higher card and say, “Sorry, old friend, but you’re wrong. That’s clearly a (blank), and a fine specimen,” or something to that tune.

Once the players have had their shot at it, the initial player reveals the face-down card. If it is higher than any of the other players’ cards, the initial player gets to define what the thing is (unrestrained by any Facets). Otherwise, the last player’s identification is used. Whatever the result of the Identify Check, that’s what the thing is from now on.

Remember that face cards have a value of 10 in this case, and that a Joker trumps everything but a Deuce (if a Deuce was already trumped before a Joker was played, it won’t trump an upcoming Joker; only a new Deuce can do that).

SPECIAL ITEMS
There may be special items, like golden idols or sinister technological devices or a coveted diamond, that come into play as part of the story. These are the only items you need to keep track of. If an item has a function that might be useable in conflicts, you can define its functions in terms of Facets, such that the character possessing the item could play a card and use the item’s Facet indicated by the suit instead of his own, or a combination thereof.

PREPARATION
Game preparation should involve all the players. You’ll want to flesh out the story enough that you have an idea of what you need to be doing, but not so much that you have no room to create more stuff. Here’s some things you’ll want to think about:
• Where does the story take place? What’s it like there? What kind of people live there?
• What characters are involved in the story? How are they related? Who’s the primary protagonist? Who’s the primary antagonist? Why?
• What’s the central conflict that kicks the protagonist into motion? You want this conflict to be something you can escalate and complicate, and finally resolve, over the course of the game—but you want to do all that during the game, so don’t overdo it in the prep stage! Figure out how to get the character in motion, and that should do it.

You’ll want to make character sheets for the characters you cook up. To keep things interesting, be sure to give them all at least one long term Ambition and a Bond each (and be sure to write up sheets for the people characters are Bonded with!). You also need to decide who’s going to control which characters. Remember that if a player has to control both sides of a conflict, the conflict’s not likely to be interesting; if necessary, invest all the responsibility for antagonism in one person (in small groups, this may be necessary).

You also want to decide just how fantastical things are allowed to get. Do you draw the line at steam-powered robots, or are flamethrower-wielding cowboys riding on talking dinosaurs kosher? A related thing to think about is the tone of the story. There’s three broad categories of tone that should work well for this game:
• Serious. The fantasticality never crosses over into the silly, and is taken in stride by the characters; it’s “the way things are” and passes for plausibility in the game world, much like in pulp and Victorian fantastic fiction. This leaves room for intense themes to be developed and explored through play, but may result in rather grim stories.
• Humorous & Snide. The fantasticality often crosses over into the silly, and the characters sometimes comment on it. Imagine The Venture Bros. in the Victorian Age and you’ve got the picture. One drawback of this mode is that you aren’t likely to have themes of any depth, if any theme at all.
• Humorous, but Earnest. Silly things sometimes happen, but the characters take them seriously; from their view, it isn’t silly at all, it’s the way things are. This presents a nice balance between the other two modes. (Personally, this one appeals to me most.)